


Crimson Song

by hawktasha



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Clintasha - Freeform, F/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-09-19 14:31:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9445604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawktasha/pseuds/hawktasha
Summary: Clint meets Natasha for telling her about his inminent plans.





	1. Time-Bomb ticking

**Author's Note:**

> This is (morely WAS) my first fic, so any suggestion will be thanked.  
> I've just decided to edit it and reloaded it in a better shape and storyline (due to when I started there wasn't any news about AoU so the plot itself has some bullet holes that cannot be fixed, just rewritten; and the format I used wasn't the one i wanted and blablabla.)   
> So, sorry for wasting time, but here it comes again.
> 
> As I imagined it ALL before AoU, it will still be about that line, just more attached to it than before, but as I kinda hate a lot of parts from AoU, it will probably be a little bit different to the movie. Yet, this time i will not invent the scenes, just maybe some parts from before because I liked them still how they are.
> 
> I'm not english native so if there are any grammar mistake I apologize from advance.
> 
> Enjoy!!

After S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fall and the trials, Steve and Natasha said goodbye to each other and went back to their normal life. If normal is the accurate word.  
Steve started looking for his old friend while Natasha followed her normal routine.  
One month after everything had ended; Natasha found a note in her desk, signed by Clint.  
Surprised about this gesture from him, she opened and read the paper in silence.  
    “Meet me at the pub. 9pm” — C. Barton.

She put the note in her right pocket and checked the hour, 8:30.  
After, she collected her things and left the office.

She arrived early, but he was already there, how she supposed.

-You’re early. —said he went she got to his side—  
-I thought you would too. —simply answered— What was the note about?  
-The note? —asked him while he drank the whisky he had ordered— It was simply a message to you, for asking you to come here.  
-Stop kidding, Clint. —said her harshly—  
-I’m not. —answered him while he turned the back to the bar—  
-We are on the 21st Century; there are mobiles, computers… And you choose a note? C’mon Clint, what’s going on?  
-Not here. —told him pointed the back door with a move of his head—

She agreed nervous and confused and followed him silently to the outside.

-What is all of this about? What aren’t you telling me?  
-Be quiet. —said him with a finger over his lips, while he made sure no one was looking. After prove there wasn't anyone, he continued. —S.H.I.E.L.D. is back.  
-That was the news? I know. It never disappeared, it just fade away a few time. I’m part of them too, y’know.  
-Of course I know, I putted you in there, remember? —said Clint with a sad look in his eyes—  
-Things have changed since then, Clint, a lot. —added her looking down—  
-I wish they hadn’t. —said him with a rest face. —Anyway—continued— I didn’t make you come for that. Coulson is running everything now since the fall, and is getting the team back.  
-The team? —asked her confused—  
-Us, Tasha. The Avengers are back to kick some ass. —clarified him with a superiority smile—  
-The Aven..? Are you sure about that?  
-Of course, why would I lie to you?  
-How do you know? —asked her incredulous—  
-I’m an Avenger, don’t I?  
-I am too and I haven’t heard anything respect it, Clint.  
-That’s why I’m here. They’re planning to join us again, in case Hydra attacks.  
-Why now? We haven’t heard anything from them since the attack Coulson’s team suffered.  
-That’s wrong.  
-What?  
-There are some rumors, about a Hydra secret weapon.  
-Weapon? What kind of weapon?  
-One we’ve faced before. —and seeing the confusion face of his friend, Clint added— The Tesseract.  
-You mean you. That you faced before.  
-We all did.  
-No. You didn’t make me come just to say a rumor, am I wrong?  
-I’m leaving town.  
-To seek for a rumor? Am I right? —said her with shortness voice—  
-To seek for the person who the rumors are about, some kind of witch I think. She might be working for Hydra. I have to stop her. I mean, we all.  
-But you are the one they’re sending. To look for a witch, seriously?  
-We’ve met Asgardian Gods, a Super Soldier from the 50’s and a Super Villain also from this decade, and you are being superstitious now?  
-I’m not being superstitious, Clint. I am being realistic. Tesseract almost destroys New York, almost destroys the team.  
-You mean I.  
-It almost destroys you, Clint.  
-Why you can’t understand?  
-Understand, what? You’re running to one thing that can be the same one who became you something that you aren’t, that destroyed a hundred persons from the outside, but it also destroyed a part of you. What if now it destroys you totally?  
-It’s something I have to deal with.  
-No, you don’t.  
-Enough, Natasha. —said him furious. — I didn’t come here to planned it, I came here to tell you before you heard it from other person’s mouth. To say goodbye if I…  
-Stop. There’s no if’s. You’re mad.  
-Mad because I want to make things right this time?  
-Mad because you’re heading right to your perdition. It seems danger is your favorite drug after all.

Clint stayed quiet as Natasha kept talking.

-Now you’re not going to talk me? How old are you, five?  
-Look. What the hell are we? Are we something? Because the last time I checked my diary we were anything but friends, so, don’t tell me what to do ‘cause it’s not of your business.  
-You’re my partner!  
-It’s my decision! —screamed him stepping back to the alley output with his hands closed, as hardly that his knuckles turned to white.—  
-Then go. —answered her with brilliant eyes and her hands shaking. — But if you walked away, if you took that mission. Don’t ever come back. You said we weren’t nothing, well, we won’t.  
-Fine. —shortly responded him at the same he turn his back to her, not without had dedicated a cold last look to her— See ya Agent Romanoff.

Surprised about his reaction and the ‘Agent Romanoff’ that came out of his mouth, she dropped his wallet to the floor and walked a step forward just to scream him madly:

-What is wrong with you!?

He turned slowly, and with a sadly, broken voice, answered:

-Everything, that’s why I’m leaving. —and after those words he walked the few metres left to end the alley and turn the left corn, leaving Natasha’s sight. —

She, shocked about everything that happened in that few time, about the words she said; broke down. And while she was hunkering down to catch her fallen wallet she started to cry without pause, and a whisper, soft like a gust of wind, left her lips:

-I didn’t mean it…—and it repeated over and over again while the time keep ticking—


	2. Hawk wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint finally went to meet S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hydra contact only known by them as the "Witch".

Clint walked down the street without stopping, still with the hands closed and with a inner fury that kept rising.  
And a huge need to punch things until they break grew inside him as well.  
With a hand movement stopped a taxi and got inside it.  
After a long ride through the New York streets, the car stopped in front of the Stark building and Clint walked to its entry.  
Once in the highest level, a short blond woman accompanied him to Tony’s directive room, where the multimillionaire was expecting him.

-You’re late! —exclaim Tony—  
-You’re never late within a mission. —added Coulson from a corner of the room—  
-I had some issues to solve…  
-Had those ”issues” something in relation with the Widow? —said Tony incriminating him—  
-Is everything ready? —asked Clint without giving any importance to his comment—  
-Your things are on the bus. —answered Coulson—  
-Fine, when do we leave?  
-Easy, man. —interrupt again Tony— Aren’t you gonna say goodbye to the cute redhair? That’s not smart.  
-Shut up. —answerd Clint following them to the terrace, where it was placed the plane—

Silently, the two man left Tony behind and jumped into the vehicle where a few agents were waiting for them, ready for the mission.

-Where is this “witch”, sir? —asked Clint when both of them got to the control room—  
-Thailand. Get ready, it’s a long trip.

Clint went to his own private room, and sit on the bed trying to apart his thoughts of Natasha a few seconds, vainly.  
And worst, what hadn’t left Clint’s mind since he run from her: she never swear in vain.  
So, if he succeed, he would be failing at the same time.

A dark feeling seize him just by thinking of her, and he lay on the bed, looking at the ceiling.

After several hours, in which Clint ended falling asleep, the plane arrived to Thailand and all the team started to preparing their equipments.  
With the suit on and the bow, he went out of the room and followed the members of the mission.  
They were only three, incluiding Clint.

It was supposed to be quick:  
Clint comes in and takes the witch, the others are just as a backup.   

With everything set off and the plans clear, they took a parachute for each one.

-Are you ready, Hawk!? —screamed Coulson behind him—  
Clint put his thumb up and screamed back while he was jumping:

-See you at four, sir!

Then the other two agents jumped and Coulson closed the gates.

When they landing, they ridded of the rests of the parachutes and walked to the centre of the city.  
It looked deserted, empty of people in the streets or any kind of light in the windows.  
It seemed suspicious, but if the rumors were right, there was a Hydra settlement, and it would explain why everything look so apocalyptic.

After one hour walking, the three of them arrived at the point where the arrangements were supposed to take part in.  
They settled in the corner where they were supposed to meet with the witch, when the noise started.  
Little explosions produced by hand grenades which expansive wave hit one of the agents leaving him instantly dead.  
It was all a trap.  
Surprised and with some cuts over their faces, Clint and the other agent run trying to save their life or at least to being able of seeing who was the guilty of that attack.  
When they got to a corner, the agent kept running ignoring Clint’s advising and a gun noise cut the air.  
A bullet came through the agent’s head, who fell on his knees dead.  
Clint held his bow hardly, and took a quick look of the narrow street where the shot had come. A gesture that almost cost his own life too.  
Searching for a escape, he decide to cover himself with the cars parked on the street, a system that allowed to him getting closer to the shooters, and also placed him nearer the plane than before.

When he found a quiet safe place he took the radio he had in his vest to make the call indicated by the protocol a bullet broke it completely, producing a few cuts in Clint’s right hand at the same time.  
Trying to cover himself better of another shot trajectory a bullet pierced his right shoulder while he tried to covered his body behind a rock wall.

-Fuck.—he blaimed while the blod dropped over his clothes—

“Two snipers, at least.” —counted Clint— “Two shot trayectories.” —and shocked moved his eyes to the direction the second bullet came from just to prove he was right.  
Another explosion, and a bullet too close to his face, luckily not close enough.

-Where did I get myself into? —he got to said suffocated half sitting with his back supported on one of the cars—

“It seems danger is your favorite drug” —thought Clint remembering Natasha’s words.—  
-What you don’t know is that you’re the most similar of a drug to me. —whispered Clint smiling, guiding his eyes to the little tattoo that hid his finger tab, those two little triangles united by their tops in a symmetric figure.

He had to survive.  
For her.  
He had to prove he was good enough, or at least good enough to try.

He tried his best to move and get out of there, but the pain in his shoulder made him move too slow and the shooters located him again.  
When he stepped forward it was too late and another shot hit him right in his abdomen.  
He fell over his knees with a hand placed on the hole.  
It was difficult to breath and at each second his eyes were heavier to hold open.  
His hand wasn’t enough to stop the bleeding and it kept bursting forth.  
The blood splashed the ground, dying everything into a crimson color, just the same shade of her hair, as similar Clint thought seeing her running to him just before he fainted and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this is reload.  
> Hope you like it<3


	3. Partners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint wakes up from his injuries to meet a not-so-happy Natasha.  
> Meanwhile, Natasha will have to handle some things for their past she preferred to let buried.
> 
> Sorry, suck at summaries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay. I've recently lost every work I made so I had to start from scratch.

Four hours had passed since her makeshift team went after Clint’s.  
Two hours since he opened his eyes again, one and a half since the doctor tested everything was okay and one since he asked to see Natasha. And he hadn’t stopped repeating it.  
Finally, Natasha got the briefness to walk inside this room without slap him or throw something painful to his injuries, blaming him.  
She crossed the door without saying a word and had a sit over the bed next to Clint’s.

After a minutes where both of them remained silent, he moved his lips, opened his mouth, confused.

-Now you’re gonna be the one who acts like a child and doesn’t talk to me? —Clint asks madly—

With those words, memories Natasha kept away from her mind came back to her, making the pain real again.  
“Love is for children…”—

-I’m not a child—said she instantly, “but sometimes I wish to” thought her looking at him, with all the tubes and headbands. How easy things would be if just they would never meet each other, but the only thought of this alternative reality depressed her and caused her even more pain. “It’s better to live constantly angry with each other, It’s better he hates you, than loosing him” said to herself once again.  
“I rather live with your rage over me, than loosing you, again.” —thought she, unable to say those words out loud, even if he wouldn’t have been there to hear them.

-I advised you, you didn’t listened. —said she calmly—  
-Advised what, Nat? That it would be dangerous? —claimed he— When in our damn world anything isn’t dangerous?  
-I advised you what would happened next.  
-Are you nuts, Tash? Are you gonna block me of your life because of that? Because I ignored you? —asked he— You are always pushing me away, it makes me sick! —and after a pause, he continued— Y’know what, go ahead. You can’t be angry with me forever. —said Clint looking at her while she was walking to the door. —  
-Try me. —answered she without looking back at him, and then, she walk through the door and went outside the room—

She was not just angry, and the fact that Clint had ignored what she warned him about, and had complained about her reaction only upset her more.  
It wasn’t their world, they weren’t trained for this.   
“Monsters? Magic? How could he even think about chasing that stone?”  
But she wasn’t prepare to care either.

-Romanoff? —said a voice at her back, making her to turn around. —  
-Yes, sir? —asked she when she realized it was Coulson’s voice. —  
-The giant, now. —answered he—

She moved her head affirmatively and turn right, straight to the Cage.  
When the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D didn’t get any response from the strike team, he didn’t hesitate to call her in. Another ‘Barton’s been compromised’ situation. If only she weren’t that predictable with the hawk. And when she found him laying on the floor covered in blood, with no sign of any other member of the team, nor what they were looking for, time called for desperate measures. And again she was the one sent to deal with them.  
That’s why there was a cage, with a the supposed god, the manipulator asshole that originally brought that problem to them. That fulfilled with even more red the ledger she already had. And made him of all the agents feel in a debt with everyone, when he wasn’t. From all, he was the least to owe anything, she thought.  
With a faint of hesitation, she finally crossed the door that lead her to the monster she hadn’t missed in all that time.

-Agent Romanoff! —exclaimed a voice while she was coming inside the room— It’s been a long time, isn’t it?  
-It would never be enough. —answered she closing the door behind her back—  
-Where are your modals? —mocked the God with a brilliant smile— Would you open the crystal, darling?   
-Where is the Tesseract? —asked she—  
-So… That’s the thing? —answered he— You call me, I modestly come, just so you could trap me in here. And now you want me to give you information? What can you offer me apart of your rudeness, Agent?  
-I’m not going to ask it twice.  
-May I ask what is this rudeness about, then?  
-Do you want me to make you a list?  
-Oh, no, no, miss. This is something different, something else. Something new. —smiled he. — I guess it’s all in our start, with Agent Barton, doesn’t it?  
-Don’t you dare name him! —exclaimed she furiously—  
-Is Mr Barton dead, Agent? —mocked he again—  
-I guess you would love it to be that way, but he’s still kicking. —said she with bright eyes—  
-Is it difficult to control your emotions, Lady Romanova? —said he noticing the tears on her eyes—  
-Emotions aren’t hard to borrow.  
-Only if some are out of the equation, only if love’s the word you never learned. But I’m afraid you know it really good.  
-Love is for children.  
-You keep saying this over and over again. But, no matter how many times you’ll repeat it, you would never fool anyone but yourself.  
-You don’t know how mistaken you are.  
-Am I? —asked he— I might be the one in a cage, but I’m not the stupid. You’re not the only one who can read people, love. And I presume you’re having some conflicts with the injured agent.  
-I don’t know what you’re talking about.  
-That’s why you are here, instead of being with him.  
-I’m not a nanny.  
-“Barton’s been compromised”, remember? 

She remained quiet, and he kept talking:

-You blame yourself, that’s why you keep pressing me about the Tesseract. I’m sorry to say I know less than you do about its whereabouts.  
-What do you mean?  
-The last time I heard about the Tesseract was when I was captured. Thor took it. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. And for what I know, with the fall from them and all of that, it’s almost sure Hydra has it. I left the Tesseract with you and then you handle it right to Hydra. It has nothing to do with me anymore.

She turned back silently and then she left the room, leaving Loki right where he was staying.

-Well. —said Agent Hill— How was it?  
-Exhausting, worst than a punch. —and after she close completely the door, she added— Oh, and worthless. Call Coulson, we need to have a chat.

 

•••  
-What did he say? —asked Coulson impatient when Natasha and Maria walked through the door—   
-Nothing you didn’t know. —answered she—  
-What does it mean? —asked he confused—  
-We had the Tesseract. You, S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson. Now we don’t. You don’t need a master to see who has it now.  
-Hydra.  
-You knew the whole time—said her madly—  
-Knew what?  
-She, the “Witch”. She’s working for them, right? It wasn’t just a rumor. She knew exactly where the Tesseract was because she was working for who had it. Or maybe there wasn’t a witch at all. It was just a smoke screen to take us down. They knew the Avenger will come, and I bet they also knew who you will send. It was obvious that you wouldn’t send the team to a mission like that, you need discretion. Meaning: it would rather be me or Clint the ones to go. 

Coulson didn’t say a word so Natasha kept shouting at him angry:

-You sent Barton to a known trap without saying a word! And then you called me to come and get him. He could have died! We both could!  
-You’re wrong, Romanoff. He contemplated the possibility. He knew the whole time things could turn wrong and he decided to go anyway. It was his call.  
-Two people have died, Coulson! Right in front of him! I’m sure he didn’t make this call!  
-He’s an assassin! Just like you! I’m pretty sure is not the first time he sees dead as close to him as this time.  
-Is not the same! They were his people! He’s not going to forgive himself for have failed, you know it. He’s gonna take it all as his fault.  
-They knew what the mission was about, all of them. He also knows that.   
-It was personal to him, Coulson. And he always pays his debts.  
-He owes us nothing. —answered he—  
-Tell him—added she while she was leaving the room to go back to the nursery—

 

After turning left twice she finally arrived to the room, and stood in front of the door a few seconds till she finally entered inside.  
The lights were off and she could see Clint laying on the bed, with his belly moving rhythmically.  
She sat on the little table next to his bed.

“You’re always pushing me away.” —remembered she sadly— “Maybe is for the best” —thought looking down.  
Softly, she approached her hand to his left arm and gently touched his wrist, just above the tubes he was connected to.   
She looked at the little triangles on it, surprised, and suddenly, a smile escaped from her lips.

-You said you removed it, you liar. —whispered she with a hand placed on her necklace while she remembered—

 

«-What is that? —asked a voice while the bedroom door was opening—  
-I thought you were on the city. You’re early.  
-You’re late. —answered he— Nevermind, what’s in the box?  
-Just something I found out in a shopfront. A nonsense. —said she—  
-A nonsense? —asked he approaching to her, putting a hand over her chin. — It doesn’t sound like you at all.  
-I’m unpredictable, Clint—answered she with a mocking smile— At least I can try.  
-Just like a tornado. —and gently moving a bunch from her hair behind her ear, he moved her lips until he place them over hers, slowly and softly, for a few seconds. Then he ended talking. — But far more destructive.  
Then he turned back and walked to the door still smiling.  
-Let’s see what the nonsense is about. —added quickly opening the little white box and taking what was inside. —  
-Then show me what you’re hiding on your left hand, Clint.  
-What? —asked he confused—  
-You’ve just used your right hand. You’re left-handed, Clinton.  
-You’ve got me. Okay. —and moving his hand to the front he showed a little plastic which surrounded all his wrist. — You’re good.  
She step forward till she was a few centimeters from him again, and then she continued talking.  
-New tattoo?   
-Of course. I think now is my turn. —answered he holding the tap of the box higher—  
-May I see the picture? —asked her looking up to his eyes—  
-Not yet, I’m afraid.  
-Then, when? —asked she with confused eyes while he placed his hand back to her chin. —  
-When you’re ready, Tash. »

 

This flashbacks punched her right in the stomach, over the abdomen, when she realized Clint was about to waking up.  
Moving her hand of his arm and approaching to the pillow of the bed, she watched him as he opened his eyes.

-Nat…Natasha? —asked he confused— I thought you said…  
-You’re still my partner, Clint. —and after a pause, she continued. — Strike team Delta, remember?   
-How could I ever forget ir? —answered he recovering the smile back on his face. — Well, can I get the hell out from that prison now? —asked he mocking—  
-Easy, man. You’ve only been here one day and you were most of the time asleep. I say you will be on that bed for a while.  
-C’mon…They don’t even let me drink coffee. Neither bourbon. It’s like hell. Nat, can you at least brought me some?  
-Don’t confuse things, Clint. I just came to see how you were doing. Don’t act like we were friends. As I said before, partners. Just it. —and after saying that trying not to sound broken, she stand up and left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never forget to leave any comment or kudos,  
>  love ya <3

**Author's Note:**

> Kudo if you like and feel free of comment, love ya <3


End file.
